Back in the early days of the Internet, you may have been more likely to simply put in a keyword of choice, tack on a “.com” to the end of it, and hope that you get a website that is reasonably relevant to your needs. These days, though, search engines are one of our most valuable resources, because they make it so much easier to, well, search the web for what we want to find. That being said, just one search engine may not be enough.

Yes, your Google Android smartphone or tablet is perfectly capable of using Google to search the web, but sometimes you want more than that. That’s why it’s great how you can use one of the multiple search apps for Android that are available, searching more than one source with a single tap of the screen. The possible applications of this are remarkably varied.

CloudMagic

Many of the apps that you have on your Android device come with some sort of search function. You can search your Gmail for a specific message or you can search through your SkyDrive to find a certain file. However, you still have to search through each of these individually…that is, unless you use something like CloudMagic. This fascinating app effectively gives you a universal search through your Gmail, Hotmail, Twitter, Dropbox, Evernote, SkyDrive, and other sources all at once. Not sure if you saved your travel itinerary in SkyDrive or Dropbox? Just use this app and you’ll find it in a jiffy.

Quick Search Widget Free

There’s already the regular Google search bar that you can put on any of your Android home screens, but using a multiple search app like the appropriately named Quick Search lets you scour the web through multiple search engines at the same time. This extends beyond Google to include Yahoo, Bing, Wikipedia, Google Play, Google News, YouTube, DailyMotion, Amazon, eBay, and more. There’s a widget included too.

Multi Search

This app is quite similar to the one above in that it offers the ability to search multiple sites at the same time. This uses normal search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, but it can also search through Picasa, Pinterest, Flickr, Amazon, IMDB, ESPN, eHow, Yelp, and more. There’s support for multiple language and regional searches too, like Baidu for Chinese, Naver for Korean, Yandex for Russian, and so on.

CheapOair Flight Search

Looking for the cheapest flight between New York and London? What about Vancouver to Tokyo? There are several smart ways to shop for your inexpensive travel plans, but they oftentimes involve visiting the websites of different airlines and resellers individually. While CheapOair isn’t going to be completely comprehensive, it does let you search, compare, and book cheap extensive multi-city flights in the fastest possible way. You can even book your rental car through this app.

Super Image Search

Looking for a picture of something, but don’t want to limit yourself to just one source? Continuing with this theme of free multiple search apps, we find Super Image Search for Google Android. The idea here is very simple: it’ll search for images through Google, Flickr, imgur, TwitPic, Picasa, Photozou, Instagram, and Hatena Fotolife. You can then find similar pictures, look for different sizes, download multiple images or set an image as a wallpaper. You’ll want to keep copyright concerns in mind before republishing elsewhere, but this can be a hugely valuable resource for your personal image library.